Sentinel
by CaBrPi
Summary: Optimus Prime narrates as he prepares to make the hardest decision of his life.


Sentinel.

You were there at the beginning of it all.

You found me, rescued me from the carnage brought on by the pointless warring of a splintered race. You took me in, you raised me as a son, raised me as a brother to Megatron. And together, the three of us led Cybertron into a new golden era. We lassoed the sun, recovered the All Spark, and built an empire no one believed could be torn apart.

We ended the tribal wars of our planet. We befriended our enemies and became brothers to them. We brought peace and freedom, long forgotten, back to Cybertron.

You gave us a banner to rally under, a name that had a deep and true meaning and inspired hope. You told us we were all Autobots. Megatron, Ironhide, Wheeljack, Shockwave, Elita, and I. We were your followers, and we followed you to the ends of our world. You told us that freedom is the right of all sentient beings, and that we would safeguard that freedom. We would all be "Autobots".

And then you revealed to me my heritage. My destiny. I am a Prime. And though I denied it at the time, refused to take leadership of our race, you still conceived a plan that maintained the empire we built together for millennia.

No one foresaw Megatron's betrayal. No one could have. He was a hero. He was my brother. But envy tempered by a lust for power drove him to the darkness. And though our planet was soon thrust once more into the hellfire of war, you stood by your ideals, and I by you. Though the war grew to greater heights than any waged before on Cybertron, we fought together, for freedom. Because freedom is the right of _all_ sentient beings.

And then I lost you.

I didn't foresee your betrayal.

I knew that you, of all of us, would remain true to your ideals.

But you compromised them. You promised to trade Megatron my death, the deaths of my brethren, and the enslavement of an entire sentient race, for an end to the war. A war which was already over. Megatron would not have his Cube.

Did they know? Did your crew know your true intentions? Did they know that, while they perished when fate intervened with your plans, you remained alive within the depths of your ship, planning the end of the very image you stood for? Did they know that you planned to destroy everything that the word Autobot stands for?

But you were betrayed yourself. Did you know that? Megatron worked alongside the one who slaughtered our brothers to break their laws, to extinguish the sun of a populated star system. Did you know that Megatron killed many of them himself? And many more perished indirectly under his hand?

You murdered my oldest comrade in cold blood. With Ironhide's death, you signed your own death warrant. I didn't want to believe you'd done it. You wouldn't have done it. You were being controlled.

But you weren't. And I knew, deep down, that you would have to die so that this world might live.

Though they are arrogant, though they are irrational, though they are violent and primitive, we were once no different. We _are_ no different. I see us in them, and some of them see themselves in us.

Though they are nothing compared to the might and power and splendor of Cybertron, they are sentient. And freedom is the right of all sentient beings.

You say that we were gods once, on Cybertron. That here, they call us "machines".

But those who know us know better. There are those who have worked alongside us to defeat the Decepticons. They know that we are not merely machines, and those who do not know are merely ignorant. Are we so different? Many of us assume that they are nothing because they are small, because they are organic, and because they have primitive technology. But those of us who've worked alongside them know better.

_I_ know better.

You tell me that though I am brave, I struggle with making the hard decisions. But you yourself struggled with the decision to remain true to your ideals. You, Sentinel, made the wrong decision.

Now all who remain from that glorious day are you, I, and Megatron. You say again that we were gods once, but now you declare that there will only be one.

I will make certain of that.

But you are stronger than I. You are twice the warrior I ever was.

Return to us, Sentinel. Please. You have shown that you can win us the war. Will you truly sacrifice the freedom of the humans? Will you truly sacrifice everything we worked for so long ago?

Your actions speak louder than any words. Yes. You will.

But you overlooked one thing. Megatron was once a proud warrior. And you have reduced him to nothing. The humans you so contemptuously looked down on have played on this.

In seconds, I see you fall. Megatron reduces you to the nothing you made him into.

He turns to me, mocks me. Tells me that he will agree to end the war on the condition that he rules Cybertron. He thinks I will compromise my ideals.

He is wrong.

Though I am damaged and torn, I summon the strength I need, and Megatron is no more.

I grab his weapon.

You try to explain yourself. You wanted the survival of our race more than anything. That is why you betrayed me.

But our race survives. Earth is our home now. You didn't betray me. You betrayed your own ideals.

You wanted to take seven billion sentient beings and make them your slaves. I will not allow that to happen, because freedom is the right of every one of them. It is a hard decision. But I lost you once. I can do it again.

Two shots is all it takes. Two blasts from Megatron's weapon, and the war is over.

Only one remains.

Your invention is destroyed, and, along with it, Cybertron. The world we worked so tirelessly to build is gone because you abandoned your ideals.

I drop Megatron's rifle, hardly believing what I have done. But it had to be.

The other remaining Autobots gather around me now. I am relieved that they are alive. They are relieved that I am alive.

This war is finally over. Freedom has won out. This world, which we Autobots have worked so tirelessly to protect, is safe. The day will never come when we forsake it or its people. The day will never come when we forsake freedom, as you did. We will never forsake our home.


End file.
